Advice on touring frame

Adam0071

Hi, fairly new to cycling (in my adult years that is), and am wanting to purchase a Touring bike, preferably a Galaxy or such like, to restore over the winter ready for next summer. Firstly it'll give me something to do on those cold winter nights, and secondly it'll add another bike to my slowly growing collection (n+1). My question is this: when I've been looking on the web touring bike sizes seem to be normally in inches rather than cm, I ride a 58cm road bike, so does this equate to 23 inches or is a touring frame measured differently? Also does anyone want to offer up any good advice on buying a touring frame. I want to keep the initial purchase as cheap as possible as I just want to strip it down and rebuild at my own spec anyway, but obviously want a good starting point which is why the Galaxy comes to mind.

Im 6 foot 2ish, 16 stoneish, and want a nice comfortable tourer that I can laden up with paniers etc and tour self supported so I think heavy duty would be the first priority.

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.

MichaelW

Older tourers use classic thin tubes. More recent versions use over-sized tubes for better stiffness. A man of your dimensions is going to need the stiffer oversized version or the frame will feel noodly when fully loaded and when you lay down lots of power through long cranks.
Classic tourers use a 1" threaded steerer. Modern ones use wider, stiffer 1 1/8" threadless steerer, which behaves better when heavily stressed and requires a much lighter toolset to adjust by the roadside.
Note the tyre clearance. My classic Bob Jackson World Tour is restricted to 32mm + mudguards which is a bit narrow by modern standards, esp on tracks and trails.
You should size bikes by length rather than standover. At 6'2" I challenge you to find any bike with too much standover height. Measure your top-tube, centre-centre and note the stem length. If you want the same total length you can use various combinations.
This is the best reading on touring bike fit.

andymiller

Hi

No touring bike frames are usually sized in centimetres. The dimension quoted will be the seat tube, but it can also be worth taking into account the length of the top tube.

It sounds like your first preference is to buy seconhand, but if you decide to consider new you could do alot worse tham a Planet-X Kaffenback with a good set of wheels.

Adam0071

michael: Are you saying that a galaxy or suchlike would be unsuitable for me?? I thought they were the typical workhorse do it all bike that I should be looking at.

Andy: Yes definately 2nd hand as I want a project over the winter to work on, infact this is my first requirement really, even if I could warrant the cost of buying new, which I cant, as a touring bike would not be used much at all throughout the year I have an Allez road bike and a Boardman HT MTB as everyday bikes.

MichaelW

Galaxy is a long-running model that has evolved and introduced new features over time. Older ones are fine if you want a classic style tourer but the more recent ones are more suitable, esp for bigger riders. Oversized steel tubes might be 1 1/8" for the top tube and 1/14" for the downtube.

Galaxy is a decent enough frame but not anything special and not as desirable as the many small-workshop or custom brands. Mercian, Bob Jackson, Roberts, etc etc. The Raleigh Randoneur tourer is not quite as common as the Galaxy, but in my opinion, a much better frame, comparable to the finest custom built frame.

dilemna

There's also the Ridgeback Panorama and Dawes Nomad as well as Thorn bikes, Kioga and Santos bikes. But if the latter specialist names of expedition bike such as Thorn, etc then even 2nd had they are going to be pricey as they tend to hold their value especially if with Rohloff hub.

Why not get an old style Specialised Rockhopper MTB and do that up?

Adam0071

Thanks for the replies. Yeah the likes of koga is definately beyond my budget. The rockhopper is no good really as I want a dedicated tourer.

Adam0071

Thanks for the replies. Yeah the likes of koga is definately beyond my budget. The rockhopper is no good really as I want a dedicated tourer.